Chapter 6 - THE SECRET SAMUEL HAD KEPT
Victoria stared at the phone.
“No.”
Samuel didn't respond.
She turned toward the police chief.
“Stop him.”
The chief hesitated.
Samuel smiled.
“Go ahead.”
The chief lowered his weapon.
Victoria stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
The chief looked exhausted.
“I've done enough.”
Victoria's expression hardened.
“You don't have a choice.”
“Yes,” he said.
“I do.”
He removed a small recording device from his jacket.
Victoria froze.
“I've been recording you for six months.”
Daniel stared.
Samuel remained calm.
The chief continued.
“I was afraid.”
Victoria's face twisted with anger.
“You'll regret this.”
“Maybe.”
He looked at Emma.
“But not as much as I regret what happened to her.”
The room changed.
For the first time, Victoria looked alone.
But Samuel knew better.
There were still people outside.
People watching.
People waiting.
He received a message.
SAFE.
Another.
EVIDENCE UPLOADED.
Another.
FEDERAL AGENTS EN ROUTE.
Victoria looked at him.
“You planned this.”
Samuel nodded.
“For eleven months.”
“Why didn't you tell your children?”
“Because the fewer people who knew, the safer they were.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“You lied to me.”
Samuel looked at him.
“I had to.”
“You let me think you abandoned me.”
“I know.”
“You let me hate you.”
“I know.”
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“I spent years alone.”
Samuel swallowed.
“I spent every one of those years trying to keep you alive.”
Daniel looked away.
Then Emma stepped between them.
“Stop.”
They both looked at her.
“We're not doing this now.”
She pointed toward Victoria.
“She wants us fighting.”
Samuel nodded.
Emma turned toward Laura.
“Mom?”
Laura looked at her.
Emma walked forward.
For seventeen years, she had believed her mother died.
Now she stood only feet away.
“I don't know what to say.”
Laura cried.
“You don't have to say anything.”
Emma hugged her.
Laura broke down.
Samuel watched.
He had spent years believing the family had been destroyed by tragedy.
Now he realized it had been destroyed by people who wanted them divided.
Victoria watched the reunion.
Then smiled.
“You think this ends here?”
Samuel turned.
“No.”
She laughed.
“You don't know who you're dealing with.”
“I know exactly who I'm dealing with.”
“Do you?”
She stepped toward him.
“Your father wasn't the mastermind.”
Samuel frowned.
“Who was?”
Victoria smiled.
“Your grandfather.”
Silence.
Samuel's face changed.
“My grandfather died before I was born.”
“Yes.”
Victoria nodded.
“But he didn't die naturally.”
Laura closed her eyes.
“He built the first network.”
Samuel stared.
“No.”
Victoria continued.
“He taught your mother everything.”
Daniel looked at Samuel.
“Dad…”
Samuel couldn't speak.
His entire family history had been constructed on lies.
Then Victoria delivered the final blow.
“Your father tried to leave.”
“What happened?”
“He was killed.”
“By whom?”
Victoria smiled.
“By the man whose photograph you've been carrying all night.”
Samuel looked at the photograph again.
The man who looked exactly like him.
The impersonator.
Victoria whispered:
“His name is Samuel Hale.”
Samuel stared.
“What?”
“The real Samuel Hale.”
Daniel looked at his father.
“You're not…”
Victoria laughed.
“You're not who you think you are.”
The room went silent.
Samuel's hands began trembling.
“Who am I?”
Victoria leaned closer.
“You're his son.”
Samuel shook his head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“You were adopted.”
Samuel's entire world collapsed.
Laura looked at him.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because your real family would have killed you.”
Samuel stared at her.
Then at Daniel.
Then Emma.
His family.
The only family he had ever known.
And suddenly, another question mattered more than all the others.
May you like
If he wasn't a Hale by blood—
why had Project Harbor spent seventeen years protecting him?
